Eddie and his mother are captured, after being lured by a mating scent, and placed inside different immobile hilltop dwelling aliens. Eddie and his mother crash land on an unusual planet where Farmer’s skill at describing unusual aliens manifests itself. His mother, an accomplished pathologist, is a constant factor in his life, especially after Eddie’s wife left because they “couldn’t get together” (9). “Mother” (1953) (novelette) 4/5 (Good): The second best story of the collection follows the emotional opera singer Eddie Fetts who has a mother complex and an unhealthy attachment to the nipple-shaped rubber top of his liquor thermos.

The only one of the five that does not live up to its premise is “Son” (1954)–maternal /”female” ocean going robots who adopt and manipulate shipwrecked men should result in a more intriguing story!

The hard-shelled, hilltop living, female-only womb aliens who fertilize themselves via roving mobile “male” objects whom they capture and thrust into their womb-spaces, described in the these two stories are downright fantastic. Highly recommended for the novelette “Mother” (1953) and its sequel short story “Daughter” (1954). The Green Odyssey (1957) and Behind the Walls of Terra (1970), long relegated to a back corner of the to read pile are suddenly more appealing… My dislike has diminished and metafictional pastiches such as Lord Tyger (1970) are on my to acquire radar. I’ve also reviewed the painfully tedious Traitor to the Living (1973)… So, it was with some trepidation that picked up Strange Relations. Long time readers of my blog might know of my dislike of Farmer’s Hugo-winning To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971) and the subsequent sequels which manage to add layers and layers of boredom. Malzberg were profoundly influenced by Farmer’s meditations on humanity’s “strange peccadilloes.” One can imagine that authors such as Barry N. Nothing else existed like this from the 50s! Having exploded onto the scene with the “transgressive” (SF encyclopedia) novella “The Lovers” (1952) (later expanded to novel length), Strange Relations (1960) collects a further five short works from the mid-50s and later on similar themes - theology, sex, xenobiology, Freud, and social satire.Įach work revolves around a particular Freudian scenario, a Freudian fantasy. Blanchard’s abstract vaginal cover for the 1960 first edition of Philip José Farmer’s Strange Relations (1960) hints, just obliquely enough to avoid being explicit, at the collection’s radical and groundbreaking contents.

Strange relations philip josé farmer